Link Financial picks up €308m Spanish business loan portfolio

By Brian Cantwell
June 20, 2018

Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar has sold a €308m portfolio of 1,222 business loans with mortgage collateral to Link Financial Group.

The portfolio, named “Galleon”, is made up of loans granted to 688 companies. The assets are located mainly in Andalusia, the Valencian Community and the Region of Murcia, said the bank. The deal was advised by Alantra.

Grupo Cajamar said it continues to increase sales of distressed assets and to reduce non-performing assets, which at the end of the first quarter of 2018 were down 3 percentage points year-on-year.

This latest portfolio sale will help the group achieve its goals for the current year, which are to remove non-performing assets from the balance sheet and release funds for use in the lending business.

At 31 March 2018, Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar, had 3.5m customers, assets of €41.8bn and a business volume under management of €72.9bn.

In July last year, sister company to Link Financial Outsourcing, LCM Partners, acquired £1.75bn (€1.96bn) in UK non-performing and re-performing loans, which consisted of mainly unsecured assets which are secondary loans originated by prime lenders.

Adrian Cloake, chief investment officer, LCM Partners said: “Our relationship with Link as in-house servicer is a key advantage for LCM Partners; in terms of investment origination, access to static pool data for underwriting and the enhanced due diligence we can conduct on the portfolios.”